Newt Gingrich's promise to build a base on the moon by 2020
Discussion
tonym911 said:
caz_manc said:
If there was just a way to access the 97% of our brains we could move worlds
This is the key. As far as I'm concerned, if we think we've been somewhere, we have been. The sooner we shake off this crazy, macho, flag-raising need to be somewhere in physical form, the better. We've a long way to go to get away from that mentality though.
Jimbeaux said:
tonym911 said:
caz_manc said:
If there was just a way to access the 97% of our brains we could move worlds
This is the key. As far as I'm concerned, if we think we've been somewhere, we have been. The sooner we shake off this crazy, macho, flag-raising need to be somewhere in physical form, the better. We've a long way to go to get away from that mentality though.V88Dicky said:
That's exactly my point. The current mindset seems to be the exact opposite of what it was in those optimistic 'we can achieve anything when we put our minds to it' Apollo days.
We seem to be in a downward spiral of human-hating self loathing, blaming ourselves for bringing the world to premature end, all the while living the dream by buying white German diesels on the never never, and 100% mortgages for houses filled with 50" TVs and the latest products from Apple Corp. and telling anyone who wants to know about our pathetic, self-important lives via Faceboak and t
tter.
Mankind NEEDS to explore. For his own good.
Agreed. We need to explore. It's in our nature. But we don't need a permanent base on the moon to do that... I'd rather we explored the oceans and had 10 rovers on Mars.We seem to be in a downward spiral of human-hating self loathing, blaming ourselves for bringing the world to premature end, all the while living the dream by buying white German diesels on the never never, and 100% mortgages for houses filled with 50" TVs and the latest products from Apple Corp. and telling anyone who wants to know about our pathetic, self-important lives via Faceboak and t
tter.Mankind NEEDS to explore. For his own good.
tonym911 said:
Jimbeaux said:
tonym911 said:
caz_manc said:
If there was just a way to access the 97% of our brains we could move worlds
This is the key. As far as I'm concerned, if we think we've been somewhere, we have been. The sooner we shake off this crazy, macho, flag-raising need to be somewhere in physical form, the better. We've a long way to go to get away from that mentality though.
Jimbeaux said:
Remote or Tele-working we call it. Technology has made it more acceptable, in certain cases.
This has been brought up a lot where I work and when discussing with friends. But 80-85% of communication is body language. I must admit I have never done video conferencing, but do you think it gives the body language over as well?caz_manc said:
Jimbeaux said:
Remote or Tele-working we call it. Technology has made it more acceptable, in certain cases.
This has been brought up a lot where I work and when discussing with friends. But 80-85% of communication is body language. I must admit I have never done video conferencing, but do you think it gives the body language over as well?
Works for me. Well it has to.
My team is in India, US (West coast), dotted across the UK and also in 3 locations in France. I don't have a desk anywhere (although we are a global company with 140,000 employees, hotdesk or work from home). I know that we have less than 40,000 physical desks.
We do have a good culture of video and audio conference, people are well trained in clear communication and we all work bloody long hours as well so no-one really cares or knows if you are in the office. Everyone is measured on what they deliver so the whole "in the office / not in the office" goes out of the window...
My team is in India, US (West coast), dotted across the UK and also in 3 locations in France. I don't have a desk anywhere (although we are a global company with 140,000 employees, hotdesk or work from home). I know that we have less than 40,000 physical desks.
We do have a good culture of video and audio conference, people are well trained in clear communication and we all work bloody long hours as well so no-one really cares or knows if you are in the office. Everyone is measured on what they deliver so the whole "in the office / not in the office" goes out of the window...
Edited by zaphod42 on Thursday 26th January 21:15
zaphod42 said:
We do have a good culture of video and audio conference, people are well trained in clear communication and we all work bloody long hours as well so no-one really cares or knows if you are in the office. Everyone is measured on what they deliver so the whole "in the office / not in the office" goes out of the window...
How do you know "people work bloody long hours"?Edited by zaphod42 on Thursday 26th January 21:15
Randy Winkman said:
How do you know "people work bloody long hours"?
I do. I just do. I've been this business long enough to know how long it takes to do various tasks, regardless of capability. We push hard and people are rewarded well... and they get cut some slack as well - mostly through flexibility.Available for an 9pm conference call? Fine. DO I check that they are picking up their phone at 8.30 the next morning... no...
Asking them to travel on a weekend? Fine, next visit, they take their wife and we pick up the tab and I turn a blind eye to the long weekend of extra "client" meetings (that don't exist) where they are soaking up some free sun.
Result - happy team, nice people, no back stabbing, highly productive group.
tonym911 said:
Nothing terribly clever I'm afraid. I believe that we don't need to be somewhere, physically, in order to know about it. We should stop wasting huge amounts of money on rocket-propelled human exploration, which is ridiculously limiting, and concentrate our efforts instead on for virtual exploration, using a combination of what we can see and what data we can collect from unmanned probes, and then use intelligence (real and artificial) to build a picture of the universe.
Shipping bags of flesh and blood even around a place as tiny as the solar system is a total waste of resource. It's as likely to produce useful results as asking a mayfly to translate the Bible into Flemish.
OK fella: I'll send you my photos from China, along with video and audio, and I'll describe in detail the smells. It'll be just like being there. FFS. Shipping bags of flesh and blood even around a place as tiny as the solar system is a total waste of resource. It's as likely to produce useful results as asking a mayfly to translate the Bible into Flemish.
Geeks. The worst thing about the internet is it gives them an audience which extends beyond their bedroom.
maxxy5 said:
The moon is roughly the size of Africa (very roughly) I just love the idea of the US leaving the fking planet instead of dealing with Africa, it is hilarious, and totally believable.
Given that China owns most of Africa, all that is left is some starving people and basket case dictators, so that makes the moon much more attractive a proposition.king planet instead of dealing with Africa, it is hilarious, and totally believable. But then, imagine if Columbus never wondered what was out there across the great ocean....
TopOnePercent said:
tonym911 said:
Nothing terribly clever I'm afraid. I believe that we don't need to be somewhere, physically, in order to know about it. We should stop wasting huge amounts of money on rocket-propelled human exploration, which is ridiculously limiting, and concentrate our efforts instead on for virtual exploration, using a combination of what we can see and what data we can collect from unmanned probes, and then use intelligence (real and artificial) to build a picture of the universe.
Shipping bags of flesh and blood even around a place as tiny as the solar system is a total waste of resource. It's as likely to produce useful results as asking a mayfly to translate the Bible into Flemish.
OK fella: I'll send you my photos from China, along with video and audio, and I'll describe in detail the smells. It'll be just like being there. FFS. Shipping bags of flesh and blood even around a place as tiny as the solar system is a total waste of resource. It's as likely to produce useful results as asking a mayfly to translate the Bible into Flemish.
Geeks. The worst thing about the internet is it gives them an audience which extends beyond their bedroom.
Your "sights and smells" of China experience is something anyone can share - they simply have to expend a small amount of energy to get there. Anyone can do it.
To get anywhere interesting in the solar system, unless you can eat your breakfast pulling 200g or are happy to spend a few years exposed to vacuum and the temperature in the chilly part of the Kelvin scale, it is not a journey for humans - the sums just don't add up when it comes to sending soft pink bodies out there. Robots have always been, and will always be, our envoys to into the void.
Newt is talking out of his arse. He couldn't build a bivvy next to the Mars factory in Slough by 2020, let alone anything else.
The USA needs to focus on getting their deficit reduced, eliminating as much public expenditure as possible and helping the economy grow. Spending massive amounts of public money to build a base on the moon is certainly going to boost the fortunes of NASA contractors, but it is no different in real terms to spending money with concrete contractors who fix roads - and that has been harshly criticised. It won't sit well with Tea Partiers and swing voters - the people who will decide who the next US President is.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff